Chris Thorntyke Discussion

[KirbyGamer91]

Just as the topic says, what did you think of Chris from Sonic X? I presonally didn't like him much. As one, he got too much attention in the first two seasons that it got annoying quickly, and I found him pointless anyway, seeing as the writers could have easily used Tails to play the role of Sonic's best friend.

So, what do you think? Discuss, and please do not say "ZOMG, CHRIS SUX CUZ HE IZ A HUMAN WHO DOESN'T BELONG IN TEH SONIKKU SERIES!!!111" or anything else that bashes him. If you don't like him, they say what you don't like about Chris politely like how I did above.

[Rusty Spy]

Hmmmm.....This topics gonna be spewing with hate. But anyway, my thoughts on Chris would be this.

I don't like Chris, but I don't hate him. I'd rip the world in half along with the rest of us if he were to appear ever again. I don't dislike Chris because the story had too much focus on him, or the fact that he took the role of some characters such as Tails as Sonic's best friend, or being a part of the Adventure saga, no. The reason I don't like him is because he just wasn't an interesting character, at all. Sure he had some personality and depth, like Chris's obsession with keeping Sonic with him when he's about to leave forever, being connected to his lack of emotional attention since he was a child. But overall, while he was necessary for the plot, he was just a boring character that really added very little to the overall series.

Some ways I DO like him in some ways is how he's had very little emotional attention since he was younger due to his parents leading high class jobs that kept them away from him for a long time, sometimes even days. I think it gives him a bit of depth to his character and explains his somewhat obsessive attachment to Sonic. Though the one thing that completely makes this chance at a better character fail is that HE'S ALREADY GOT FRIENDS.

Edited April 10, 2009 by VirgoTheCougar

[Fox Gungrave]

I especially don't like him when he takes Sonic's friends role in the game adaptation.

[SuperStingray]

I use to tolerate Chris, but now I really can't stand him. I'm fine with human characters other than Eggman, but only if they're interesting and don't hog the spotlight. This is Sonic X, not Wealthy Latchkey X. Plus I envy his position. I mean, how awesome would it be to have Sonic living with you? Okay maybe not so much if he had the same attitude he did in X.

Edited April 10, 2009 by SuperStingray

[Erazor]

I didn't like him much in the anime. He was cool in the comics though.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Erazor

[JezMM]

I liked him. I think for the reasons Virgo said, he could have been a much more interesting character, but I think he was okay as he was. He's what set Sonic X's story apart from the games. Sonic X at it's core was the story of "What if Sonic came to our world from a different one?" Rather than the games' storyline that he's always been here and it's totally normal.

But yeah, I like him. He could have been more interesting, but he filled his purpose.

I'll never get all the stealing roles' bullshit. He did it twice in the Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation (emphasis on the word adaptation) and that's it. As for the "Tails is meant to be Sonic's best friend!" ...he is. Sonic can have two best friends. Hell, in the games Sonic is best friends with Tails AND Amy these days. Also of note: No-one complained in the OVA when Knuckles apparently became his best friend (see the scene where Knux talks over the videophone to the president).

Edited April 10, 2009 by JezMM

[ovarloard]

I don't like Chris, and I'm not bashing him because he's a human. I just don't like his character... his voice is grating and his character is annoying ("I'll help you! Oh, wait, my plans to help backfired! Save me, Sonic!").

Other than that, it's hard to explain. I like Chris's uncle who was captain of that "Speed Squad" or something (Sam, I think his name was). But maybe that's just cause he's like Sonic and likes going fast. Either way, that should prove I don't hate the humans in the series. It's just Chris.

[SuperStingray]

I don't like Chris, and I'm not bashing him because he's a human. I just don't like his character... his voice is grating and his character is annoying ("I'll help you! Oh, wait, my plans to help backfired! Save me, Sonic!").

Other than that, it's hard to explain. I like Chris's uncle who was captain of that "Speed Squad" or something (Sam, I think his name was). But maybe that's just cause he's like Sonic and likes going fast. Either way, that should prove I don't hate the humans in the series. It's just Chris.

Yeah, see Sam was good. He had a good rivalry with Sonic that made him like the "Jet" of the series. With a different voice of course. Chris had three seasons and yet he still barely developed.

[Diogenes]

Chris pretty much has no redeeming qualities...Sonic X would only be better if he had never been created. I'm not even sure where they were going with him...if the intention was to have the viewer identify with him, they failed horribly. He really only serves to take time away from the characters we actually want to see, and for what of the show I watched I honestly cannot remember a single thing he did that was interesting.

Plus he just looks stupid. Honestly, you don't even have to know him to dislike him...you just have to look at him.

[Dr. Mechano]

I don't care for Chris. But more than his character, I dislike how he's become a strawman for anti-human fans to point to. They use the logic that "Chris was lame, therefore all humans are lame!" which is absolutely false. Humans make up a lot of very good characters in the franchise, and Chris has been adopted by the anti-human crowd as their posterchild of hate.

[Sega DogTagz]

I take a disliking to the circumstances.

I always thought it weird that Sonic would just so happen to have fallen into a pool of the local tyrant power couple and be rescued by a 10 year old who by all means should have grown up too pampered to know how to swim.

Chris character did not get off on the right foot for me and it kept getting worse with the stereotype that Chris forced upon himself for his constant need of attention/praise. No matter what happened during the series, Chris always seemed to fall back into the same rut.

Sonic will be so proud of me!!!

I’m useless…

I’m useful!!!

OMG Sonic save me

Wash, rinse and repeat. Needless to say it got old fast and it only took a few episodes for me to join the growing mob that was calling for his head.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Sega DogTagz

[SuperStingray]

I don't care for Chris. But more than his character, I dislike how he's become a strawman for anti-human fans to point to. They use the logic that "Chris was lame, therefore all humans are lame!" which is absolutely false. Humans make up a lot of very good characters in the franchise, and Chris has been adopted by the anti-human crowd as their posterchild of hate.

I think Chris would be better as the posterchild of "hey, the game characters COULD be worse!"

[Blazey Firekitty]

I don't like Chris much, at least not at this time. I've never seen anything to suggest he ever progressed beyond a shallow Tails clone.

But I'm not angry at him anymore, either. I do like him...just not a lot right now, because I'm having a hard time figuring out what purpose he serves. It got really tiresome for me to be holding in all that anger inside me over a made up character. I think Chris definitely has potential to be a good character, but I know too little about him to make a strong judgement on his current worth.

[Silencer226]

Oh boy I feel a rant coming on *cracks knuckles*.

Where to start, first off I'll say that Chris is one of the most annoying characters ever. I don't mind the fact that he is Sonic's friend, but the fact that he must always be in the action is what pisses me off. The first episode is what I expected the rest of the series to be like, but instead we got Chris, Chris convinces Shadow not to blow up the world, Chris befriends Shadow, Chris reminds Shadow of Maria even though he's a boy so I guess that means Chris is a transvestite, Chris somehow builds a machine to Sonic's world (really... and then you also have the nerve to make tails fall in love with a tree...), Chris makes all the gadgets... wait that's Tails' job what the fuck happened there.

Ok enough about that, he is also a whiny bitch. "I must prove to Sonic that I can help out"... um no you little fuck face you stay at home and let the furry talking animals handle Eggman... awww damn you came anyways and got caught, and what the fuck kid you made us lose a Chaos Emerald... See he ruins everything!

I don't see why a human character was need for the viewer to relate to (because every child is some spoiled punkass rich kid who lives in a mansion). That was their goal and they failed, it would've been a lot better had they done things from Tails' perspective. I'm going around in circles now, I just want to say Chris Thorndike is just an out of place character, I think the old grandpa guy was more like able than Chris... Hawk (guy who only appeared once in the series) was better than Chris...

[Dr. Mechano]

I don't see why a human character was need for the viewer to relate to

Chris's humanity was not his problem. Sonic's had plenty of well-written human characters.

Chris's problem was being a poorly-written character who was shoehorned into the story. He wasn't a good character, but his species has nothing to do with it. Eggman and many others have proven humans have a definite place in this series. It's ridiculous to point to Chris as an argument against humans.

[Thirsty Pocket]

He really took the spotlight away from the actual characters, which has been a tradition in Sonic Animation since the Freedom Fighters and Sonic Underground.

I can't say I hate him, but really, he didn't add a whole lot to the show that Tails or some one else could have added themselves.

[Tombi]

More than anything I generally feel Chris had a huge lack of direction. To give the writers some credit; they did give him some qualities that people could connect with - like being distant from your parents, having a rather boring life, having a big family that causes him hassle and stuff like that...but it all just went nowhere. As mentioned, him begging for Sonic to stay with him would have been much more effective if he didn't already have a loving family and group of friends, and not to mention loads of money. Likewise, Chris lost a lot of his ability to connect to the audience when layer upon layer of unncessary crap was added to his character, and by the end he just became annoying and "whiny" to most people.

Keep in mind though; by the end of the series he wasn't doing anything. By that time all of his family trouble that we spent two series' learning about was barely mentioned or developed on again, and his role just became the guy who sounds the alarm, helps Tails build a spaceship, and occasionally gets kidnapped...and that was it. It really did go to show how unnecessary his character was in the grand scheme of things when he could have just been taken out and nothing would have changed, and I figure it was around this time that the writers realised he wasn't a good "long term" character. (To say the least.)

But no, I didn't hate him - I just thought he ended up as a waste of time. There probably was potential there, but Sonic X just missed the mark in using it.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Tombi

[JezMM]

Ok enough about that, he is also a whiny bitch. "I must prove to Sonic that I can help out"... um no you little fuck face you stay at home and let the furry talking animals handle Eggman... awww damn you came anyways and got caught, and what the fuck kid you made us lose a Chaos Emerald... See he ruins everything!

When did this happen? In episode 4 he needed saving, but he also was the one who got the chaos emerald back from Dr. Eggman.

[jackskellinghog]

Chris is my best meme. So I can thank him for that.

[AdventChild]

Possibly one of the most annoying and useless chars in the Sonic franchise.

He took the spotlight most of the time and played out some of the roles of other chars in the game adaptions. His char was poorly written and poorly developed and topped off with a highly annoying voice. The series would have been better without him yet it would have been better if not for the whole 'Sonic in the Real World' or 'Transported into Another World' plot which was a pretty stupid move since it focused on Sonic's interaction with humans and more minor humans did add some worthless plot or took some of the spotlight as well. It felt like there wasn't enough Sonic and crew IMO.

Anyways, long story short, Chris is just a poorly written and developed rich kid that no one can really connect to and was just useless and seemed unnecessary in Sonic X, IMO. About human chars that anyone can relate to, Chris is a poor example of that and as said before, poorly written. Though it isn't necessary that humans are what everyone needs/has to relate to.

[Eileanach]

Most everyone has kind of summed up what I think.

I have only started to watch the Japanese version of Sonic X (what can I say I am super slow at watching stuff these days). Now needless to say Sonic X isn't great but it isn't God awful either. There is a lot of fun in it and whilst some of the subplots are stupid and pointless it's not unbearable.

Chris is a spoilt child and is very attention starved because his parents believe the material stuff he gets fills the void that two parents fill. How wrong they are. Chris desires attention and wants to prove himself (which is fair enough, to an extent we all want to prove ourselves and show we are useful), but, Chris is so poorly developed that the watcher doesn't feel a connection or bond with him and most of the time we are applauding when he gets kidnapped or falls from a great height at least then there would be a bit of a story and depth to him.

He's just filler but as a lot of folk have already said it seems to be more Chris X than Sonic X he seems to be the replacement of most of the emotional baggage the other characters are. It can get quite irksome. I don't hate him, I just think he could've been developed a bit better and maybe then people wouldn't hate him as passionately.

I mean there are a few human characters who slot in nicely to the Sonic franchise and that's great. Robotnik being the main example of a human character who compliments the series perfectly. Sometimes human characters need to be given a chance to grow and develop, sadly the Sonic X creators didn't really bother to do that.

[Indigo Rush]

How do I feel about Chris?

...meh. Just... meh. His design could be used as an NPC in one of the hub worlds in a Sonic game, but that's all I'd like to see of him after Sonic X. He's just meh.

[lounge]

I'm just thankful they didn't put him in future games after sonic X first aired.

Could you imagine if he was in sonic unleashed. I could perfectly visualize that. Instead of being mad he was in that game, I'd probably be too busy laughing my ass off. Just imagine him redesigned in that stupid cartoonish look.

[Diogenes]

He'd probably look better, actually.

[midori]

I won't talk about Chris because I can't talk about him without using negative words...

But, his uncle/whoever the readhead was was an interesting character! And Chris's teacher made me laugh a lot in that certain episode where he found an incredibly interesting picture in Thordykes' house... | (o ; )

Edited April 10, 2009 by Yume